Thrift Industry

BRIEFCASE

September 20, 1991

CHARLES KEATING Jr. and the chief financial officer of his American Continental Corp. decided to lie to their junk-bond holders in October 1988, a former aide told jurors Thursday at Keating's fraud trial in Los Angeles. Robin Scott Symes, ex-chief executive of Keating's Lincoln Savings & Loan in Irvine, Calif., was testifying in the first criminal case stemming from the collapse of Lincoln, which carried a record bailout tab of $2.6 billion to taxpayers.